The present invention relates in general to paper feeders, and, more particularly, to friction-type paper feeders.
Friction feeders are used to handle a wide variety of materials, such as paper, mail pieces, envelopes, and the like.
Such feeders often become jammed when a piece of paper having an odd thickness, size, or orientation is introduced thereinto. Such jamming requires the feeder to be shut down, thereby causing losses in both money and time. Therefore, there is need in the art of a friction feeder capable of accommodating pieces having a wide variety of thicknesses, sizes, stocks and orientations while still maintaining a continuous, uninterrupted operation.
A further drawback of presently known friction feeders results during adjustments to the feeder. Such adjustments in known feeders are not precise and overtravel of adjusted parts is often possible. Such overtravel results in undue wear to the parts of the feeder. Thus, a need exists for a feeder which will permit precise adjustments thereto while preventing overtravel of the adjusted parts. Furthermore, adjustments in known feeders often cause distortion of the pieces being fed thereby causing further jamming problems. Thus, there is need for a feeder which can be adjusted without causing undue distortion of pieces being fed by the device.
Other drawbacks to presently know feeders include lack of: variability, adaptability and precision. Thus, there is need for a friction feeder which is accurately adjustable, adaptable for handling multiple pieces of paper of varying thicknesses and which permits precise adjustment of the mechanism.